Huang Goodman · Art Forgotten

Art Forgotten

Art from public museum collections. A mismatched real Japanese law, and some other factoids.

Every object, image and description comes from the museum's own catalogue record, and every object links to its original. Japanese records are machine-translated into English; the museum's Japanese is kept beside the translation because it is the authoritative form. Each law carries its official number and links to e-Gov 法令検索, the Japanese government's statute database.

Vase with Bamboo Joints
{Vase with Bamboo Joints · Seifū Yohei IV (Japanese, 1872–1951) · 1914–46 · Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0}

Yohei IV's Vase with Bamboo Joints has a shape similar to that of pairs of bronze flower vases traditionally placed to the sides of Buddhist altars before sculptures. The term hisoku (Chinese misé), or "mysterious color," refers to a specific green color in the glazing, while seiji (seiiji) is a more general term for green-glazed porcelain. However, there is still some variation in the actual shade of the glaze.

Yohei IV’s Vase with Bamboo Joints has a shape often seen in pairs of bronze flower vases placed to either side of Buddhist altars before sculptural icons. While the term hisoku (Chinese mise 秘色), or “mysterious color” glazing, indicates a more specific green color than seiji 青磁, a more general word for green-glazed porcelain, there is still some range in the actual color of the glaze.

View the original at Cleveland Museum of Art →
The law
美術品の美術館における公開の促進に関する法律
Act on Promotion of Public Exhibition of Works of Art in Museums
平成十年法律第九十九号 · Act No. 99 of 1998

A statute built to coax privately held work onto public walls. An owner registers a piece with the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, then contracts with a museum to display it. Article 2 defines a work of art broadly, as paintings, sculpture, crafts and other tangible cultural products that are movable, which is the legal way of saying anything you could carry out of the house.

The cool part. The terms are the interesting part. Article 2 requires the public display contract to run for five years or more, and to contain a clause stating that the parties may not give notice of cancellation. You cannot lend a masterpiece for the tax treatment and then reclaim it when the market turns. Japan concluded the barrier to seeing art was never storage. It was ownership, and the fix was a contract you cannot walk out of.

Verify at e-Gov 法令検索 →

Use it Palette for a single-colour run: one ink, heavy stock, nothing else on the sheet.

Description source: museum curator text, translated — not generated